Redbirds' home woes continue in 2-1 loss to Nashville Sounds

Memphis 12-15 at AutoZone

The Redbirds are one of four teams in the Pacific Coast League with a winning road record at 19-13.

It's the main reason they find themselves in first place in the American Northern Division (31-28), because AutoZone Park hasn't been the friendliest of places for the home team this season.

Thursday night's 2-1 loss to Nashville left the Redbirds with a 12-15 mark at AutoZone Park, making them the only first-place team in the league with a losing record at home. It's left the Redbirds searching for reasons they struggle to score runs and win games at home.

"A lot of these parks we go to are hitters' parks," outfielder Adron Chambers said. "The ball flies everywhere. But we'd rather be home than away. I think it's the competition. We're just having to battle. We're still in first place and we're playing good baseball. But right now, we're playing a little bit better on the road."

Nashville came in with the league's worst record (18-39), and was 12½ games behind the Redbirds. But the Sounds had red-hot pitcher Johnny Hellweg, and that's all they needed.

Hellweg (5-4) won for the fourth time in his last five outings and demonstrated why opponents were hitting just .198 against him. The hard-throwing right-hander gave up just three hits while blanking the Redbirds over seven innings.

"You've got to really give credit to their guy, their starter," Redbirds manager Pop Warner said. "He was good. He was running the ball into our guys and locating his fastball on both sides. When you show me a guy that pitches inside for strikes, with some velocity and some movement, you've got a special guy, and that guy did it. Give him credit."

The Redbirds' lone chance to score against Hellweg came in the sixth when they loaded the bases with two outs, but Hellweg got cleanup hitter Brock Peterson to ground into a force-out.

They finally got on the board in the eighth when Whitty walked and scored on Ryan Jackson's double. They tried to tie the game in the ninth when Greg Garcia led off with a double, but Nashville pitcher Rob Wooten retired the next three batters. They finished with just five hits, two by Chambers.

"To me, a game is a game, no matter who we're playing against and where we're playing," Chambers said. "We've been playing some great baseball this year. And the beautiful thing about it is we can get better."

Redbirds starter Richard Castillo (0-2) struggled with his command, walking four batters, but he only gave up four hits in six innings.